How To Get People To Click On Your Links

People used to hire me because I'm a good writer, but now they hire me because I'm a good traffic-generator.

This is what has saved me as a writer in an up-and-down economy. Because you may be a great writer, but if no one wants to read your work, does it really matter how good you are?

Sometimes people think I get a lot of traffic because sometimes I write about sex and porn. That may be true in part, but I would venture that it's because I sometimes write about sex and porn that I am good at getting traffic.

Seeing what makes people respond has taught me how to make people click. That's why I'm one of the top five traffic-generators for ForbesWoman.

"'Business book authors often get caught up in their methodology and their principles, and they’re so excited about the process or idea they’ve come up with, they forget no one cares,'" says Rob Eagar, who wrote a book called Sell Your Book Like Wildfire.

According to Eagar, people care about results. What can I do with this information? How can I use it? How can I make it mine?

The thing is, you have to understand the vast territory that people perceive to be "results." They may want to be informed, or they may want to be turned on, or they may want to be made to feel, or they may want to forget about something else.

What are you delivering? Delivering well isn't about delivering your interesting product. It's about delivering well your interesting product that is wanted.

TIP #2: People are animals.

The other day, I was trying to get someone to understand how to make people click.

This is your target. A male or a female. Sitting at a computer. Their finger is on a mouse, or a keyboard, or a screen.

Do you understand what you need to do? Make them move their finger. Think about that. That's it.

To make someone twitch their digit, you must reach inside their brain and pull a lever. This is not done by being boring, by being dull, by being a fact factory.

It's by being interesting. Which, for most of you, is harder than you think. It is very easy to be like everyone else. It is very hard to stand out.

That title makes people twitchy. What does she mean by that? Which guys want to sleep with me at work? Or, as Little Richard once said to me in the lobby of a hotel on Sunset Boulevard, how can I get some?

Clicking isn't about thinking. It's about feeling. Get that, and get traffic.

TIP #3: Be fearless about being hated.

I talked to a workplace expert the other day about how women want to be pleasers. You can see it in their emails to you. "Hi!" "Thanks!!!" ":D" Really? Are you four, or are you a VP? Do you want people to like you, or do you want people to respect you? I can't respect you if what you're telling me is "Hi! Thanks!!! :D."

Instead of being willing to be hated, women write blog posts about how they have it harder on the internet. They'll have you believe women are victims of men in our shared virtual reality. If everyone would just be a little bit nicer, they politely suggest, the world would be a kinder, specialer, fuzzier place.

This isn't how it works. It's about being willing to stand up in your foxhole. It's about being bold and taking risks. It's about stopping being like everyone else and starting being like who you really are because the alternative is being invisible.